Indo-Pak peace talks called off

A day after India abruptly called off high-level talks with Pakistan after the high commissioner of Pakistan Abdul Basit in Delhi invited Kashmiri separatist leaders for a meeting has drawn sharp criticism from the Hurriyat leaders.

The meeting of the two quarrelsome neighbors’ foreign secretaries in Islamabad next week would have been the first in 18 months after Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, accepted an invitation to attend the Swearing -in- ceremony of Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in Delhi three months ago.

Describing the decision to call off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan as “childish and undemocratic” the Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani who is scheduled to meet Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, today said “Kashmir is an international issue and not an internal issue of India.”

Geelini said “As long as promises made to us are not fulfilled, this issue will remain unsolved,” He also said that India is not trying to resolve the issue and suppressing it. “India does not want to resolve the issue but it is using force to suppress it.” he said.

Another Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq while talking to a news channel said that Indian government has over reacted on the issue. “There has to be a peaceful, political resolution to the Kashmir issue.”

Meanwhile the secretary of CPI (M) for Jammu and Kashmir Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami remarked that it is in the interest of peace and prosperity of the entire region to initiate talks and continue them to seek solutions for contentious issues.

“The significance of dialogue becomes more important during the adverse situations and it is extremely painful that instead of furthering the dialogue process, channels of communication at diplomatic levels have been stalled” Tarigami observed.

Abdul Basit had invited Kashmiri separatist, including Hurriyat Conference (G) leader Syed Ali Geelani and Hurriyat (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, for consultations ahead of foreign secretary level talks in Islamabad. The meetings were supposed to be held on Monday and Tuesday.

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